One of the key aims of the controversial Housing and Planning Act 2016 is to crack down on rogue landlords who knowingly rent out unsafe and substandard accommodation. To do so, the Act introduces the concept of a ‘banning order offence’ and a database of rogue landlords.

While this is a worthy goal, the Act itself provides little certainty as to exactly what constitutes a rogue landlord and instead simply grants the Secretary of State wide powers to create and impose secondary legislation which will include those details which are lacking in the Act